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Research Summaries
Using the drop-down menu below, read about highlighted scientific news from ASCO's Annual Meetings since 2002. You can select a specific year and/or a specific topic, such as a type of cancer. Selecting "All" will take you to a complete list of articles that appear under all categories.
The 2013 ASCO Annual Meeting is set for May 31-June 4, with research news beginning to be released on May 15 at 6pm Eastern. Additional research will be released each day of the meeting.
To read these summaries categorized into a yearly newsletter, you can also review Cancer Advances: News for Patients from the ASCO Annual Meeting.
Don’t forget to check out audio podcasts and videos about this news, as well. And, in addition to the highlighted studies below, thousands of scientific abstracts are released each year at the ASCO Annual Meeting. To search the entire collection of meeting abstracts, visit ASCO's website.
June 7, 2004
Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is a fast-growing primary brain cancer that is difficult to treat. The standard treatment for GBM is surgery followed by radiation therapy. However, patients diagnosed with GBM usually have a poor prognosis (chance of recovery). Results of a recent, large, multi-institutional phase III clinical trial show that treating patients with radiation and chemotherapy improves both progression-free survival and overall survival in GBM.
June 6, 2004
A study of more than 5,000 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis shows that raloxifene (Evista), a drug used to treat bone loss, also lowers a woman's risk of estrogen receptor (ER) positive invasive breast cancer. These findings mark eight years of follow-up without any new safety concerns.
June 6, 2004
A new drug called SU11248 shrinks or slows the progression of cancer in patients with gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) whose tumors have stopped responding to the standard treatment of imatinib (Gleevec). However, imatinib eventually stops working in about half of all patients, and the cancer progresses.
June 6, 2004
Anaplastic oligodendrogliomas (AOs) and anaplastic oligoastrocytomas (AOAs) are rare but fast-growing tumors that develop in the brain. The standard treatment is surgery followed by radiation. Doctors also know that these tumors respond to a chemotherapy regimen called PCV (procarbazine, lomustine, and vincristine). This study was done to find out whether giving PCV before radiation treatment improved survival in people with AOs and AOAs.
June 6, 2004
Researchers have discovered a correlation between a tumor protein called epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) vIII ("variant three") and the prognosis (chance of recovery) of grade 3 and 4 primary brain tumors called gliomas.
June 6, 2004
A new study from the University of Michigan and CHS National Cancer Control Center in Israel suggests that statins may be protective against colorectal cancer.
June 5, 2004
Three new studies suggest that adding rituximab (Rituxan), a monoclonal antibody therapy, to chemotherapy is an effective treatment for several types of non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL). Monoclonal antibodies are laboratory-made substances that recognize and attach to specific proteins (called antigens) on the outside of lymphocytes (white blood cells). Rituximab binds to an antigen on lymphoma cells called CD20. Researchers think that this action helps the body's immune system destroy the cancer cells.
June 5, 2004
Renal cell carcinoma (RCC) is the most common kind of kidney cancer. Unfortunately, most cases are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread to other parts of the body (metastasized), which means that patients with metastatic RCC usually have limited treatment options. Two new studies demonstrate that metastatic RCC responds to new drugs that target multiple, specific pathways in cancer cells.
June 5, 2004
Results of a phase III clinical trial show that bortezomib (Velcade) improves patient survival and slows the progression of multiple myeloma that has come back after initial treatment (relapsed). Bortezomib also appears to cause fewer side effects in patients than a current standard treatment, dexamethasone.
June 5, 2004
A new study shows that paclitaxel (Taxol) is more effective but also more toxic in Japanese patients with advanced stage non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) than in U.S. patients. Non-small cell lung cancer is the most common type of lung cancer.